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The death of a young woman during postelection protests last year in Iran sparks a rights movement

Crimes against humanity, be it genocide, slavery or systematic political oppression, are most effectively exposed through individual stories. Numbers dehumanize, blur together, but the diary of a single young girl forced into hiding before dying at the hands of the Nazis makes clear what, precisely, was lost during the Holocaust.

Which is why the shocking murder of Neda Agha-Soltan during what began as peaceful protests after the 2009 elections in Iran shocked and mobilized not only the citizens of her nation but also millions around the world. Shot by what many believe to be a government sniper, Neda's death was captured on video by bystanders and uploaded to the Internet. The image of this lovely young woman lying in the street, her eyes wide and surprised as her blood poured from her mouth and pooled beneath her, became a symbol for all those killed or harmed by the Iranian government and Islamic extremists.

Neda Soltani is the ordinary Iranian woman whose image spread last summer in an instant around the world. She's a symbol of the brutality of the Iranian regime and the resilience of Iran's movement for democracy.

She's also still alive.

A woman named Neda did indeed die last summer on the streets of Tehran, gunned down by members of an Iranian militia. Her full name was Neda Agha-Soltan. But mixed in with the tragic footage of that Neda's death, broadc ast around the world in a viral video that galvanized world opinion against the Iranian regime, was a compelling Facebook snapshot of a smiling young beauty in a flowered headscarf.